Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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104. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the amount it costs the State annually since an institute (details supplied) closed down to treat or to offer treatment to adult child sex offenders; the number being treated abroad; the cost of same; and her views on whether it would be more effective to treat them at home or examine other alternatives. [16538/17]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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It is assumed that this question refers to the treatment of convicted sex offenders under supervision by the Probation Service in the community. In that case, the Probation Service had funded the institute cited in the Deputy's question in respect of sex offender treatment services up to 2010. In 2012 the “Safer Lives” treatment programme commenced and this national programme is based in Dublin and Cork. As explained below, the programme is facilitated through PACE, a Community Based Organisation which also operates the Foothold Floating Support Service and Circles of Support and Accountability (CoSA).

"Safer Lives" is a group-work treatment programme for sex offenders delivered on an inter-disciplinary, co-facilitated model. The "Foothold Floating Support Service" providesintensive one-to-one support for men convicted of a sexual offence following release from custody. It provides practical and emotional support and helps re-integration process. CoSA consists of an inner circle made up of volunteers in the community offering support to a "core member" (sex offender) on a weekly basis for a specific period. It is targeted at sex offenders within their community and provides them with assistance while holding them to account for future behaviour.

€1.721m in funding is committed to the PACE organisation in 2017 which includes the services being provided under the three programmes i.e. "Safer Lives", Foothold and CoSA. There is no information available to the Probation Service to the effect that any of these three programmes involve treatment abroad.

I should also mention that the Probation Service, in co-operation with An Garda Síochána, the Irish Prison Service, Tusla and local housing authorities work closely using the Sex Offender Risk Assessment and Management model (SORAM ). Through SORAM, sex offenders are jointly supervised and managed in the community. This work is overseen nationally by a strategic co-located interagency team based in Harcourt Square.